Chapter Seventeen - Out In The Open
The sounds of chirping crickets and hooting owls were the only things noticeably active. It had gotten fairly dark, but the light of the fire kept their little camp well lit. A shiver ran through Lyra’s body; noticing the fire growing dim, she levitated wood into it and shot a small spell to help ignite it. A whoosh of flames was the result, giving her the heat she desired.
Looking around, Lyra took a glance at everypony currently sleeping. Only a few hours ago they were active and talking, passing stories to one another while sharing laughs and scares. It felt more like the six of them were camping than trying to go out on a rescue mission. It was fun, in its own way. Lyra made sure not to stop any of it, remembering Octavia’s previous words.
Sighing, she took a glance at Bon Bon, soundlessly asleep. Lyra hadn’t joined in with the activities around the fire, only including herself when the others sought to, the others somehow missing Lyra’s mood. She was still too lost in her thoughts, unsure what had happened a few hours ago.
‘Why would Bon Bon like Anon?’ Lyra was terribly confused. ‘I’m sure she knows I like him, right? So if what she said in the forest made any sense…’
She was struggling hard with herself, trying to think of anything that would connect what she had heard.
‘When did this all start? When could this have first happened?’
Lyra thought about past events, connecting things to the best of her ability.
‘Was it when I was trying to get the two of them to be closer together as friends?’
Lyra had remembered talking to Anon privately a few times about it, knowing he was having problems with her friend such as her completely shutting him out.
‘But that couldn’t be it. No, there has to be more to this. Just how could she go from ignoring him to liking him in such a way?’
A sudden thought struck her, her ears popping up in the air in realization. Then, they flattened against her head. “Oh…”
It was the month that she wasn’t around Anon. A whole month with him and Bon Bon, spending their time together constantly on a daily basis, forming strong, fascinating connections with one another. They were together for every morning, for their lunches, after work, even special outings like going to the park while Lyra was left out of it all.
‘Is… Is that what really happened? Did Bon Bon get a hold of Anon while I was in the background? But is that enough time for something like this to happen, for them to connect so closely?’ Lyra hung her head down. ‘Who am I to argue with that… the same thing happened to me.’
Everything that had happened with them in the previous month kept appearing in her head: all the times she saw them hugging, talking, or going out. She was left out of everything, and this was what had happened as a result.
Looking over at Bon Bon, Lyra could see a small smile appear on her face as she rolled away from her. She wiped her eyes, doing her best to hold back from crying.
“Lyra—”
That startled her, making her jump from the log she was sitting at. She immediately powered her horn up, aiming it at… Octavia? The mare stood there, blinking at Lyra calmly. It took the shooken pony a few moments to realize her horn was lit up still, aimed at her friend. Breathing slowly to calm herself, she negated the magic in her horn, letting the spell dissipate.
“Sorry ‘bout that,” she apologized.
“No, I shouldn’t have walked up on you like that, so I’m the one that should be apologizing.”
“Um… Okay then. So why are you awake right now?”
“Do you not recall? I am the next watcher while you get some sleep.” She walked over to Lyra, nudging her in the side. Lyra got up as Octavia took her place. “I am a light sleeper, much like you and Bon Bon, or did you forget our time at the academy?”
“N-No, I remember well.”
She gave her a nod, and then looked at Lyra’s sleeping bag. “You best get some shuteye before the dawn breaks through.”
“Right,” she replied, walking to her bag.
Slipping inside, she tried to get as comfortable as she could on the ground as she stared into the fire. Watching the embers spark, they helped her forget her worries. The crackling of the wood eased the mare into a lull that soon found her fast asleep.
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Lyra awoke with a fright, feeling something jabbed into her side. Fearing something was trying to eat her, she snapped her eyes open, kicking with all her might, trying to get whatever was attacking her. That did no good as her hooves met no resistance. Cloud Chaser was quite lucky for that, otherwise, she would be walking with a limp for the rest of the day.
“Hey sleepyhead!” she greeted Lyra with a load of pep. “Rise and shine! Time to get up!”
The pegasus flew away to a log her sister was sitting on before Lyra could respond. Yawning, Lyra slipped out of her bag and stood up, stretching her body out. Looking down at her bag, she quickly folded it up nice and neat before tying it back into one of her saddlebags. Finished with that, she looked at the campfire and saw Octavia walking toward her.
“Good morning, Lyra.”
“Morning,” Lyra greeted back with a nod.
“I hope you slept well last night.”
“Yeah, just need to get some kinks out of my side but I’m certain they’ll be gone when we continue into the forest.”
“Right,” Octavia said before moving closer to Lyra. “So, Lyra… are you doing okay?”
Lyra wasn’t sure what Octavia meant with that. “Yes? I guess so. Why are you asking me this?”
“Last night when I got up and went over to take your watch, you looked troubled. I don’t know, it looked like something you might want to talk about.”
She shook her head, looking back at Octavia. “It’s nothing; I was just lost in thought about something.”
“If you say so,” Octavia said before nudging her head at the fire. “You should hurry and get some food before it gets cold.”
“Okay,” Lyra replied, walking toward the fire. Taking a seat by the logs, Vinyl levitated a rock that had some cooked eggs on it. She stared at it, sighing.
“No one thought to bring any dishes, did they?”
“Nope,” Vinyl replied with a mouthful of food. “So I just took some rocks, cut them with my magic, and cleaned them all up!”
“Reminds me of when we got lost in the woods during that trip in the academy, right Lyra?” Bon Bon said, taking a seat beside her. “Lots of screaming and jumping at shadows.”
“Um… yeah, right…”
“Gah!” Octavia exclaimed, looking at Bon Bon. “I remember we were out there for three days straight! I nearly missed my important recital practice for the orchestra that was playing for the king of Gryphonia!”
“Oh yeah!” Vinyl sputtered, spewing some food in the direction of Octavia who jolted to the side. “You were having such a spaz attack the entire time! Oh boy, that was hilarious!”
“I was worried that I would’ve missed such a big opportunity, something that would’ve determined my entire career; my whole life, hanging in the balance because of you idiots and your decision to go find that stupid rabbit myth!”
“And look how that ended,” Vinyl said, poking a wooden fork she had made at Octavia. “The king couldn’t even make it due to some weird junk that was happening in his kingdom. I forget what it was about though.”
“Oh! I heard about that,” Flitter chirped in. “I think it was something about their borders being in complete chaos for almost an entire month.”
“Huh. Well, whatever it was, we wound up getting out of there by tree express!” Vinyl threw a hoof in the air, making a swoosh sound. “That thing sure did fly!”
“What, that was you guys?!” Cloud Chaser squeaked out. “I remember hearing about that. That thing was seen flying past Cloudsdale!”
“That sure was a whole mess of fun!” Vinyl said with a laugh. “Octavia wouldn’t stop screaming for a single second!”
“I THOUGHT I WAS GOING TO DIE!”
Vinyl and Octavia started to bicker at one another as the other four laughed at the scene. Lyra watched the entire scene with a small smile, remembering that event clearly. Looking to her side, she remembered Bon Bon’s part in it fondly, tying everypony together to the log. Staring at her friend as she laughed with the others, her smile slowly dropped, looking down at the eggs on her rock.
They eventually returned back to their meals, trying to get warm by the fire before heading out.
Lyra turned her head to Bon Bon, thinking it’d be a good idea to mention something, “Hey Bon Bon…?”
“Hmm?” She turned to her, a fork in her mouth.
“If, well… um… Well, if you ever have anything that you need to talk to me about, you know I’m here to listen, right?” Bon Bon blinked hearing that. “I mean, if you have anything you’ve wanted to say to me or just need to let out, I’m here to listen.”
She stared at Lyra for a few moments before giving her a small smile. “I appreciate the gesture, Lyra, and if I ever have anything I need to talk about I’ll come straight to you,” she said before going back to her meal.
A flash of emotions mixed around inside of Lyra after hearing that. She looked back at her eggs, swirling them around.
‘Maybe she’s waiting for a good time to say something to you?’ a familiar voice told her. ‘Try not to act out irrationally at her words.’
‘But from how it sounded last night, she’s been waiting for a good while to say anything at all. So what is she waiting this long for?’
Lyra could feel a thump on her side, forcing her from her thoughts. Looking over, she could see Vinyl poking her with her fork into her side. “Yes?”
“I asked what our plans are going into this forest.”
“Plans?”
It took her a moment to realize what Vinyl had meant. Placing her rock down on the log, she levitated the map to her, spreading it out in the air. The others stopped eating and came over, looking up at it.
“Okay, we are currently here,” Lyra pointed at the map, “and obviously we want to be here,” she said, trailing her hoof across the map. “Because of the information that Bon Bon procured, we can plan around some of the more dangerous places where the Beasts of Dourness are known to congregate.”
“I’m sorry, what did you just call them?” Cloud Chaser asked.
“It’s what the natives have been calling them. Just think of them as normal creatures or animals, but with weird mutations on them. Like a snake with two heads for instance.”
“That would be so cool to see,” Cloud Chaser commented, lost in her head about what she could see in the forest.
“Um… this looks like a really long distance to travel,” Flitter commented.
“It’ll take some time getting there,” Lyra said. “And we’ll have to make sure not to come across any posts the rebels have set up out here in this forest. We got the information on their location already, which I’ve marked in red here, here, and here,” she told them, pointing at the map in their areas. “So we’re going to go around these posts, in this trail I’ve already marked.”
“Won’t that mean it’ll take a bit longer than just going straight to the base?” Cloud Chaser asked as she leaned on Lyra’s shoulder, looking at the map.
“The time spent going around the posts is time we’ll be saving than having to deal with the rebels. Though we’re more likely to be met with the creatures in this forest, it’s safer than dealing with the rebels, especially since there are two groups of them to watch for. I’d assume that it could take anywhere from three to five days to get there, though if we hustle we could be there faster.”
“What?!” Cloud Chaser hollered, looking at the map. “But with how you have it mapped out, we should only be there in two days.” The others looked at Cloud Chaser, confused. “I know a thing or two about mapping, okay? I know what I’m talking about.”
Lyra shook her head at Cloud Chaser, “I’m estimating the time based on us going around the posts and any unmarked paths that we come across, along with if we at all need to backtrack or have to slow down for any reason.” She rolled up the map, placing it back into her pack. “I certainly would like it to be only two days to get there.”
“Same here,” Bon Bon agreed with a nod. “We should hurry up then with our meals and head out soon. We have a long day ahead of us.”
The others agreed, heading back to their logs to finish eating. Lyra picked up her own rock of food and started to eat quietly in thought. While she couldn’t figure out why Bon Bon hadn’t said anything about last night, she would rather get a move on toward Anon. That was their main priority right then above everything else. She would just have to think about things with her friend on the way there.
The six of them took no time finishing their meals and packing up. After extinguishing their fire, Lyra took the lead into the forest with the five following close behind.
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‘Why can’t things be simple for once?’
Anon had noticed that there was a changing of the guards that night, two ponies that were extremely wary of him, having been two of the ponies he had previously confronted. It certainly made sleeping easier for him not having to deal with two annoyances all night, even though it was on the ground with a thin mattress, thin pillow, and a blanket. The moment he woke up though, he was met with the very creepy smiles of the previous guards staring at him through the bars. He nearly screamed in fright from how horrifying they looked.
That, apparently, was them trying to appear nice; it obviously didn’t work.
After calming down, the two went about giving Anon a fairly good breakfast: eggs, toast, a proper bowl of oatmeal, and even some OJ, freshly squeezed. He was surprised by the turnabout from the other day, but he was certainly not complaining.
Of course, the guards wouldn’t leave him alone. Their attempt at appearing ‘nice’ to him was their way of trying to butter up. They, of course, wanted to talk more about the other day, concerned about what he had brought up. They had also brought a pack of Skip-Bo cards because of course, they did. Anon was surprised seeing that they were identical to his worlds, and soon enough, a few games had gone by.
The two had been asking some questions they had been thinking hard on after their talk the other day. The questions on that topic were slow, as they were more enjoying the game more than really doing their job.
“So how about this?” Rocky said, placing down a card. “What if the unicorns made little magic baubles that could hold their magic, which we could then use for food. Would that work?”
Anon, placing a twelve down and discarding that pile, drew another five while thinking on the question.
“That would still require a lot of unicorns to make work, if not all of them. They’d also have to continuously make containers constantly, little to no breaks and no life, just to make the amount needed.” From what Lyra had taught him on magic, that kind of task would need everyone on deck at all times to make work. “It’d be the same result as enslaving them to work on food making only now you have to train them to store magic.”
He seemed dejected hearing that, still trying to figure out some way to make it work. “Maybe… Hmmm….”
Roller placed a nine down, then discarding a card into a pile, ended his turn. “What if Princess Luna was to do the farming!”
“Oooh, yeah! That could work!”
Anon gave them a deadpan stare, “Do you really think your own ruler, who has to deal with plenty of other things, could find the time do to all that work herself even if she wanted to?”
The two of them got into thinking poses, mulling over the question. Anon yawned, looking at his hand; saving two Skip-Bo’s and a one, he had the game in the bag.
“Even if the food was somehow figured out, along with figuring out how to get all the ponies to deal with living at night, there’s still needing to deal with all the beings that aren’t ponies, such as the griffons, minotaurs, dragons, camels, donkeys, dragons, and who knows what else. They’re not going to like you fellas screwing up the world that they also live in.”
“But we have a great guard to help with that!” Roller said. “And we even have the Elements! Surely they’ll help us if anything happens, right?”
Anon scoffed, “You’re joking. If it hasn’t occurred to you, it’s not Princess Luna that wants eternal night but that weird symbiotic host that had her, Nightmare Moon.”
Lyra had gone into explicit detail explaining that the two entities were not the same being, just so he didn’t mistakenly offend the princess when he had finally met her.
“So for your plan of eternal night work at all, you’d need Nightmare Moon, not Princess Luna. Even if you somehow managed to get that symbiote in the picture, if you could even locate it, the first thing it would do once in power is lock up those Elements up so they couldn’t fight her back as they did before. Oh, and to top that off, you’d only have half a guard to work with since the day guard would be disbanded as a result of all of this. And that’s even if the night guard sticks around and doesn’t fight back as well as it’s their princess they’re loyal to, not Nightmare Night.”
The moment that Rocky ended his turn, Anon placed down his one and then his two Skip-Bo cards in a row before he dusted off his hands. The other two frowned at his play.
“You’re really good at this,” Roller said, grabbing the cards before shuffling them.
“None of this makes sense to me,” Anon said, watching the cards being shuffled by hooves, which weirded him out. “Your group wants eternal night, but you’d need Nightmare Moon for that. But you’d have to turn Luna to get that, and I don’t think that’s possible at any time in the near future without her allowing it to happen, and from what little I’ve garnered she’d rather step down than let that happen. It’s kind of why I think your group, or at least your leader is after something else.”
Rocky looked at Roller with some concern on his face as Roller passed the cards out. “So you think we might be getting tricked? Or maybe everypony is in on this besides us two?”
“I don’t like that, Rocky…”
“It’s possible,” Anon said, looking at his hand. He frowned, noticing the crap hand he was dealt. “But it’s also possible the leader is the only one misleading you all, including Liberum and Colibri.”
“Let’s just say you’re right about all this. What do you think our leader is trying to do?” Rocky asked as he got his cards ready. “I mean, if he’s the one doing all of this, what’s he after?”
“What else would a villain want?” Anon shook his head, discarding a ten to end his turn. “I think the guy’s trying to get power himself, or whoever is leading him. It would explain why none of this makes sense, as I don’t see any way for anyone to remove Celestia or Luna from power.”
“So you think our leader wants power? And that he’s trying to get it by removing Princess Celestia?”
“How would that work, Rocky?”
“Maybe he has some special device to do that? Or a magical artifact that can control Princess Luna some way?”
“I don’t know of any artifacts that aren’t already locked up that could do that. Even some powerful and cursed amulets and artifacts wouldn’t necessarily guarantee a win to power.”
“Ugh! But why would he try and make it like he wants Princess Luna in power? Alien, do you have any idea?”
Anon sighed, readjusting himself as he tried to get comfortable. He looked at his hand, then discarded an eight. “First off, my name is Anon, not alien. Second, it’s kind of getting tiring with all these questions. Wouldn’t it make more sense to ask someone in charge of this stuff?”
The two of them looked at one another, and then back to Anon. “Well,” Rocky started, “when we first joined, we actually had some questions like these but nopony could or was willing, to answer them. Everypony either ignored us or changed the topic.”
“Eventually,” Roller continued off, “we just stopped asking and figured it would all work out in the end. But with you here discussing this kind of stuff and all… we think we probably should’ve kept asking.”
“So you two just want answers to things and I’m the only one that you can discuss this?”
They both bobbed their heads up and down with a smile. “Since we’re watching you anyway, why not talk about things as well?” Rocky said with a grin.
“We were originally just going to ask you things anyways about being an alien, like walking on two legs all day long or how it feels with no fur, but this is just as good.”
“Plus, you’re an alien! Even if it wasn’t about anything when’s the next chance we’ll talk to one?!”
“Probably not for a very long time, I’d reckon.”
“So let me get this straight,” Anon said, finally playing out his hand and drawing another five. “You two originally wanted to talk to me for no other reason than I’m an alien?”
“You’ve also brought up things we were previously interested in, so that’s another thing!” Roller reached behind himself, inside of a pack he had by him before throwing it into Anon’s cell. “Of course, we can also provide some things… if it’ll help you talk with us…”
Anon looked at the item, and then back to Roller. “Is that a brownie…?”
“Yes, yes it is.”
“And if we need to… sweeten the deal…” And now it was Rocky’s turn to shove something in from out of nowhere. It was a cup completely filled to the brim with milk.
“How’d you manage not to spill that?”
“I’m just that good.”
Anon placed his face into the palms of his hands at their shenanigans.
‘How did these two wind up here as guards?’
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Lyra had forgotten how intimidating the forest could be. Granted, she had only been out there once, and it was only for a few short hours, but still. While it didn’t have the foreboding feeling that the Everfree gave off, it still made her uncertain of what was to come; case in point, Sappy from before. Luckily, none of them had met anything bad so far, just an innumerable amount of trees and other things one would expect in a forest, along with a ton of noises that easily unnerved everyone.
The six of them had grouped in twos to help watch one another’s sides in case anything happened. As it would go, Flitter was with her sister, Vinyl was with Octavia… and Lyra was with Bon Bon. She had been beside her most of the trip, throwing a few words whenever Lyra had checked the map for anything or for direction on where to go.
It had been several hours since their last stop for lunch. Lyra had a good amount of time to stew around in her thoughts about Bon Bon. She still wasn’t sure what to do, or say. She had been attempting to slip in little questions to her pertaining to Anon. Bon Bon sidestepped most of the questions, turning it around to Lyra’s thoughts. Of course, she had plenty to say about that, but it still upset her Bon Bon wasn’t opening up about what Lyra had heard the other night. Why wasn’t she taking the hint?
Lyra had put out so many tells that the only thing left was to outright ask her about it. Though she felt it would be better if Bon Bon initiated things, Lyra wasn’t sure she would. Was she nervous about it? Surely they could have a civilized talk, right?
‘Maybe she’s waiting to talk to Anon first,’ the voice in her head said.
Lyra realized what that could mean. ‘Is… is she trying to get a chance to talk to him first before me so she can be with him?’
Looking at Bon Bon, she continued walking beside Lyra, right then stepping over a large branch lying in their path before continuing on. She looked behind her, noticing the other four babbling to one another about something or another.
‘You should talk to her without the others around to try and get some privacy.’
She was Lyra’s bestest best friend in the world, which made it hard to deal with this at all, so she didn’t want to blow up on her on something this sensitive, even if it was painful to hold back.
‘Yeah, surely we can talk about this later on without me doing something stupid, right?’
“HIT THE DECK!”
Lyra slammed her body into the ground without a thought after hearing Bon Bon scream out. A pink blur sailed right over their heads, trying to slam into their group. Instead, it slammed into a tree nearby.
Getting up, Lyra neared to the others who had already huddled together, getting ready for what was attacking them.
“What in the hay was that?!” Flitter screamed, looking around nervously.
“It looked like a pink manticore!” Vinyl answered back. “Lyra, do you know anything about them here?”
“I didn’t even know they came in pink!”
“So we just so happened to come across the only pink manticore in all of Equestria out here?” Octavia asked, staring warily at the manticore that was standing back up.
It gave them a really wide smile, wider than should be possible even for a manticore, as it showcased its row of razor-sharp teeth. The six of them shuddered.
“We’re not going to fight that manticore,” Lyra told them in a low whisper. “We… are going… to run away from it…”
“And how exactly do we do that?” Octavia asked quietly. “We have to get past that manticore to continue forward don’t we?”
“Maybe we can distract it somehow?” Vinyl joined in. “Then we can get around it and hightail it out of here!”
“Sounds good, but what do we do to distract it?” Bon Bon piped in, sliding in.
“Why are we all whispering?” Flitter asked. “Also, why hasn’t the manticore tried anything yet?”
They all slowly turned their heads to the manticore, who gave them all another large grin. It continued standing there, staring at them all.
“It must be toying with us,” Lyra answered. “Remember, it’s part cat, so it likes to play with its prey.”
“I hate being a prey animal,” Bon Bon harrumphed out.
“Don’t worry girls!” Cloud Chaser said with loud glee. “I’ve got the perfect distraction!”
She took flight above them, holding a jar filled with a yellow liquid.
“W-What the hay?!” Lyra was astonished seeing that. “Please tell me you haven’t been saving up your pee this entire time!”
“Nah,” Flitter responded, “that’s just Celestia’s Pee!”
Everyone’s eyes were on Cloud Chaser, jaws dropped to the ground.
“H-How did you manage to collect her pee?” Lyra said.
“WHY did you collect her pee?!” Octavia asked incredulously.
Cloud Chaser looked angered. “It’s not her pee! Stop calling it that, Flitter!”
She angrily threw the bottle at the manticore, shattering it at the ground and splattering the beast with whatever the concoction was. The manticore immediately dropped to the ground, wailing in agony, trying to rub itself in the dirt. The group quickly understood why it was acting that way as the smell of the extremely pungent liquid hit their nostrils.
“Now’s our chance!” Cloud Chaser screamed, flying behind them and shoving the group past the preoccupied manticore who continued to flop around the ground, trying to get rid of the smell. “Let’s get out of here!”
The manticore roared, clearly not happy with its current situation. The six blasted past it and through the trees, running for their lives from the very enraged creature that smelled strongly of terrible, terrible pee.
Somehow, Lyra had ended up in the back of the pack, watching the other five jumping over logs and rocks while diving through bushes without a care. Lyra kept checking behind herself, spotting the mad beast still hot on their tails as it roared at them.
Starting up a quick spell, she threw a large beam at a tree she was passing by, hoping it would slow the manticore down. The pink beast flew right over the tree in its way, though it did slow it down minutely. Lyra continued blasting more of the trees around, hoping to further slow down its progress on her. It did nothing to deter its snarling and speed.
Lyra spotted a rope, somehow slung to a tree in a peculiar manner. The manticore got a leg stuck inside of it, a branch quickly flinging it off into the air and out of the area. She looked ahead at Bon Bon who gave Lyra a large smile. It was quickly replaced with shock; looking behind her, Lyra saw the manticore was once again back on their tails as if it had teleported to them.
Bon Bon tried a few more attempts, yet no matter how she managed to throw the thing off their tracks, it somehow came back each time. Lyra wasn’t sure how long they had been running, certain though it must have been miles. Her heart was racing like crazy, her entire body covered in sweat and nearly on the brink of collapse from how exhausted she felt. But she continued on, knowing that to stop would invite herself into the belly of the beast, quite literally.
Lyra had to stop using her magic trying to stop the thing, starting to feel dizzy from overusing it too much. This granted the manticore to catch up to them all. It was so close, she could feel the roaring from it through her body.
‘It can’t end like this, can it?! I’m supposed to die of old age, or possibly from a binge on smoothies, not like this! There’s so much to do with my friends and Anon still!’
The manticore’s head was only a hoof away from her tail; she could feel its breath coming on her. She doubled her efforts, trying to get further away, not wanting its teeth sinking into her flank.
Without warning, the pink manticore slid to a halt. Lyra only noticed this as she was in the back and felt it wasn’t breathing on her anymore. Looking back, she could see it slowly falling from view as it sat on the ground, watching them. She could barely make it out, but the thing gave her a wink before whisking away like smoke. So completely flabbergasted by this, she didn’t even notice the others had stopped in front of her.
With her current speed, she rammed into the other five, forcing them down a very large hill. They all screamed out, balled up and now rolling down said hill. Eventually, the six of them collided against something that forced them to an immediate stop. They all laid there on the ground, groaning in pain.
“Is… Is the m-manticore gone?” Flitter asked, her head swirling about.
“I think so,” Vinyl answered before wobbly standing up. “Ugh, that’s certainly not something I found myself enjoying. We should keep an eye out just in case it decides to come back. Oooh, I hope my equipment wasn’t too damaged from that tumble.”
“My cello!” Octavia yelped out, jumping to her hooves. She immediately dropped back to the ground head first, still dizzy.
“Maybe you should take it slow, Octavia,” Vinyl said to the now groaning mare.
“Where are we anyway?” Flitter asked.
They all looked around, curious about their current location. Lyra could recognize the place immediately even if she hadn’t been there before. “We’re at one of the outposts that are marked on the map.”
“Weren’t we trying to avoid this place?” Bon Bon asked.
“Yes, we are,” Lyra answered.
It seemed that when they rolled down the hill, the six of them collided against an outpost tower coincidentally.
“It doesn’t look like anypony’s been here in a while,” Cloud Chaser said, flying around the building. “I wonder why that is.”
“M-Maybe they’re on patrol?” Flitter tried to answer.
Vinyl walked up to the open door, peering inside. “I don’t think so, fellas. This place looks like it’s been abandoned for a good while now, so I doubt we’ll be seeing any of those rebel ponies anytime soon.”
Looking inside the building, Lyra could see Vinyl walking to the staircase that led up to another floor. Cloud Chaser came from it, flying into the middle of the room, picking up all the mountain of dust from it into the air. The others ran back out, trying to clear their lungs out. Cloud Chaser flew from the top of the building, slowly lowering herself toward the group with a sheepish grin.
“Hehehe… sorry.”
Lyra gave her a small glare, still coughing about. Bon Bon walked to the building, looking in. “This doesn’t make any sense,” she said. “I thought these outposts would be full of guards, so why’d they abandon this place?”
“Maybe they’re all on patrol?” Flitter tried to answer again.
“All at the same time? And why would this place be so dusty?” Bon Bon walked back to the group, thinking about things. “This place obviously hasn’t been visited in a while.”
“There were a lot of outposts on the map, so who’s to say they could even have enough ponypower to fill them up,” Vinyl commented. “Hay, they could also just decided to not enter the building itself. The area does seem like it’s been used from the burnt campfire I see.”
“Place still looks like it hasn’t seen a visitor in some time,” Octavia added in. “Perhaps a good few weeks, a month at most.”
“Yeah, that could be it,” Lyra said, just getting her throat cleared. “I think it might be a better idea to stick with the outposts, now that we’ve seen what’s out there in terms of creatures. If we do come across any guards at any of the outposts we can probably handle them better than the manticore from before.”
“I like the outpost idea as well, fighting off ponies is definitely better than whatever else is out here,” Bon Bon said, right before chuckling. “That sure was an odd one though. What’s the likelihood of seeing that manticore again?”
“I wouldn’t know, but right before I crashed into all of you, I saw the pink manticore winking at me before vanishing.”
“It’s weird it would wink at you,” Octavia commented in a mumble. “Was it simply messing with us?”
“Vanishing?” Flitter said, tilting her head. “So it was super fast? Was it really just toying with us then?”
“If it was superfast it would have already gotten to us when we ran from it,” Cloud Chaser said.
“No, when I said vanishing, I mean by using magic, in a cloud of pink smoke,” Lyra said.
That got the group's attention. “I now fully agree to go to the posts from now on,” Cloud Chaser said. “I don’t mind fighting the guards, or even manticores if needed, but not pink, magic-using manticores.”
They all nodded their heads in agreement. Taking out her map, Lyra looked to see if she could identify where they were. The others closed in to see as well.
“So if I had to guess where we are now, I’d have to say it’s probably this outpost,” Lyra pointed out. “So we just need to head directly to the second post. We should be able to get there before it gets dark.” She rolled up the map, placing it back in the pack. “This will cut our time down by a large amount so long as nothing happens along the way.”
“Should we check the tower for anything important?” Flitter asked. “We might find something in there we could use.”
“No, anything left behind would be of no use to us,” Lyra said. “I doubt there’s anything of value to take and they wouldn’t just leave info about their plans behind.”
“So we should be going then,” Bon Bon said, walking beside Lyra.
“If you all don’t mind, I need to fix my cello first,” Octavia said, sitting on the ground with her cello case opened up. She turned to Vinyl, “Hey, can you come over here? I need your help with this.”
“Sure!” she replied, trotting to her. “Is it something wrong with the lightning box inside? Or maybe it’s—” Octavia interrupted Vinyl by pulling out some of her hair, which was soon followed by Vinyl screaming out, holding her head. “W-W-WHAT WAS THAT FOR?!”
“I need some of your hair to make a new string.”
“BUT WHY MY HAIR?!”
“Because the other strings are made from your hair, remember? So I wanted them to match.”
“Next time, ASK ME!”
“Very well,” Octavia said nonchalantly, going back to making the string.
Lyra never understood how Octavia was capable of making strings without any equipment, wondering how she was trained to do that or if she learned that on her own. Sitting down, Lyra took out her water and tried to relax for the moment.
‘This is going to take a while,’ she thought to herself, knowing they couldn’t move on without Octavia finishing her work.
“Vinyl, I need some more hair.”
“WHYYYYYYYY?!”
“I need strong hair, and I only got a few good strands that I can actually use. If you’d just take better care of your mane…”
The two started to bicker back and forth as the others in the group sat beside Lyra, trying to relax as well.
‘Yep, a good time to relax as any I suppose.’
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X~ ~X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X
Anon had regretted many things in his life: smoking, skipping classes or spending his very first paycheck on nothing but ramen noodles. These were things that stayed with him and reminded him to do better, to correct his course of future actions from such idiotic mistakes. Funnily enough, he could now add another thing to that long list of things he kept in the back of his head of regrets: ever talking to the guards.
Standing in front of him was none other than the prick, Liberum.
Fun little thing that wasn’t so much fun that happened, after talking to the guards, they thought it would be a good time to bring up these things with some others. And now Liberum was here as a result of that.
“I’m going to ask you once more,” he said with his forever frown. “Why are you filling our guard’s heads with this nonsensical drivel?”
Anon couldn’t help but let out a tired sigh as he stood across from the pony behind the bars. “Why does it matter what I say to them? It’s not like you really care about those two from what I’ve seen.”
His frown only deepened, “I care about my guards being manipulated.”
“Yeah, the problem there is I’m not manipulating them. I’m just speaking my mind about this whole situation, which I find completely absurd. Expecting Princess Luna to rule over the lands, especially the way you are going about it, is a plan destined for failure.”
The pony looked at Anon as if he was an imbecile. “I’m certain whatever our commander has planned will work out in the end. As for you, you are not here to chat up our guards but to act as a negotiation piece against Princess Celestia. After the negotiations, you will be given back, simple as that.”
Anon, disliking how he was being treated, decided to push some buttons, “Do you really think something this stupidly planned will work? Using me as a bargaining tool doesn’t make any sense. Expecting Celestia to step down makes even less sense. And thinking your plan for the ENTIRE population of the planet will go smoothly is foolish.”
If it was at all possible, Liberum’s frown grew further down his face. Anon knew his face was going to feel sore in the morning. “Not that it’s any of your business, but our commander has everything under control with his plans he has meticulously kept with for many years. It is not I nor anypony else’s place to question his plans.”
“None of my business he says,” Anon said, barking out a laugh. “You just want to keep yourself convinced this is all a good idea. And you have no proof of it at all it is, do you? How are you and your lot going to put Luna in power? She didn’t even want to have eternal night, the little pest that was Nightmare wanted that. Are you honestly sure of things, or are you following blindly like a fanatical nutjob?”
Liberum snarled at Anon, slamming the bars of the cell. “I have no reason to question my betters. They are convinced that Princess Celestia has her sister entrapped in a terrible situation, having come out of her sentence and it is up to us to free her from it!”
“Yes, she has her in the palms… ehr, the… middle of her hooves? I don’t know how to interpret that stupid saying.” Anon shook his head. “I don’t even know why this is being discussed. I really don’t care what you guys wind up doing. It’s not going to work anyway, the whole thing is too terribly flawed that anyone with a brain and a moment’s thought would pick apart whatever your lot told them. Those two guards before? Did you actually hear what I said to them?”
“I heard plenty.”
“And even after listening to all of that, you’re not going to question your superiors?”
Liberum snorted with a shake of his head. “Colibri would never allow such a thing to happen, so if he says it’s true, then I know it to be true.”
He was getting terribly tired of the conversation. He rubbed his forehead, “So your commander has plans for the things I mentioned, some kind of way to shackle the entire populace of the world coming after you all for this? You are certain they can keep the ponies from being ghosted, dusted out on route ‘Questria?”
The pony opened his mouth and then closed it. “I’m certain Colibri has a plan for things.”
Anon looked at him with a small smirk, “But Colibri isn’t in charge. He’s just a second to your leader that’s orchestrating it all.” He snorted, “Colibir’s probably a pawn in whatever game your leader’s playing.”
Liberum harrumphed, “Colibri is capable of making his own decisions,” he said with his head held high. “Whether it’s leading himself or ordering your capture, he knows what he’s doing.”
“Yeah, sure. Just face it; you don’t know how anything will work because your leader never planned for it to work. He’ll take what he’s after while your lot is led around in circles, Colibri leading that charge. But, go ahead. Continue believing that this all will probably work out, that Colibri is probably not a pawn and is probably not going to be thrown away at the last second and probably won’t lead to the eventual doom of everything you know.”
“Our… Our leader wouldn’t just get rid of Colibri. He’s too important to all this!”
“Important to you? Sure, I can see that. But your leader? You don’t think he wouldn’t just toss him aside if it benefited him? That’s what villains do, buckaroo. It wouldn’t matter if he had to rid of all of you, Colibri included, so long as he wins in the end.”
“You’re wrong. There’s, we’re all integral in this! Our leader wouldn’t just use us for such iniquitous deeds.”
“You sure aren’t sounding very certain anymore. Are you finally realizing that there is no real plan in all of this?”
Anon got close to the bars, sticking his head up against them and looking down at the pony.
“I’d seriously rethink things through, little pony. You’re being led astray from your flock by a wolf, garbed in false righteousness and sweet little lies. And you and Colibri will find yourselves led willingly down the belly of the beast soon enough…”
The pony seemed disturbed, concerned by Anon’s words. He refused to reply, instead opting to leave out the door as fast as he possibly could. Anon stood back up with his arms crossed, looking calm. On the inside though, he was cheering himself on.
‘Hell yeah, I sounded awesome! I swear I could have won an Oscar right there!’
Hearing some noises, Anon eventually saw the return of the previous two guards that had gotten him into the previous mess. “I’d have expected Liberum would have changed the guard out since he thinks I’m trying to manipulate you two for some reason.”
“We don’t exactly have a lot of guards here,” Rocky replied.
‘Handy info to have.’
“And we were ordered not to talk to you.”
“But we still have some things we’d like to talk to you about, so we’ll keep this between us,” Roller said with a wink. “We’ll just play some,” he winked again, “Skip-Bo,” another wink, “to pass the time,” and once more for good measure.
Anon wiped his face with a palm, letting out a sigh as he stared up at the ceiling. “Just great…”
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X~ ~X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X
After Octavia got her string fitted onto her cello, the six of them were back to walking, only with a new destination in mind. While it was risky going to another post, what with them being unsure about the rebels being positioned in them, it was definitely a safer alternative to meeting similar creatures in the forest such as the pink manticore from before.
Lyra was feeling paranoid, almost certain that the thing was following them, seeing pink flashes out of the corner of her eyes. She stuck closer to everyone as a result.
None of them had talked once they started walking unless it was to ask a simple question or point something out to the group. They were still too spooked about what had happened previously, fully on guard and alert for anything else. The only thing on their mind was to get to the next post as quickly as possible.
Luckily for them, they hadn’t met any other creatures getting to the post. And it was just starting to get dark once they arrived at it.
‘Perfect timing,’ Lyra thought as she squatted down in a bush with the others.
They all stood outside of the view of the large tower, watching for any signs that there was any activity inside of the place.
“What do you think?” Bon Bon asked.
“Not sure,” Lyra replied, “I haven’t seen anything happen so far.”
Cloud Chaser groaned, “We’ve been sitting in these bushes for almost half an hour. I’m just going to check it real quick so stay here.”
Before any of them could stop her she had already zoomed off to the top of the tower, going inside one of the windows. They all waited patiently, uncertain about what she would find. It didn’t take long for her to return, slowly flying back.
“So?” Vinyl asked.
“It’s empty, completely covered in dust.”
“Not if I have any say about that,” Octavia said, walking toward the post. “Vinyl, hurry up! I’m going to need your magic to clear out all this dust.”
Vinyl let out a low whine, following after Octavia who had already entered the post.
“So what do we do now?” Flitter asked, flying beside her sister.
“Go collect some wood, like last time,” Lyra answered. “Just don’t go too far, we’re not sure what else is out here.”
Cloud Chaser saluted Lyra, Flitter sloppily imitating, before they flew off into the trees. Turning to her side, Lyra saw Bon Bon had already gone toward the post to begin setting up her traps. That left Lyra with helping inside the tower. Walking to the door, she jumped to the side once the door slammed open from a huge wave of wind blasting it.
The wind turned into a miniature tornado of dust that swirled off into the sky before it dispersed itself off into the distance. Turning back to the door, she saw the two ponies coming out for the tower, coughing wildly with their manes sticking up at odd angles.
“Hey Octavia, you’re manes completely wonked out girl,” Vinyl said, still coughing but with a smile. “Should get that checked out at the closest salon.”
“Shut it, Vinyl.”
Shaking her head at them, Lyra walked inside the tower, inspecting it. It was very simple inside with only a few chairs along with a table and a desk remaining inside. There was a fireplace built into the wall, simplifying matters on where to start a fire for them.
Claiming one of the smaller desks that remained, she pulled it to the side and placed her pack down on it. Pulling her map out, she rolled it on the desk and started looking over it as she attempted to make some changes to their route while thinking of any places that she remembered being no-go zones. Lyra also planned to check the documents to see if there was any information on the rebels that matched up to why these posts were empty.
In the background, Vinyl and Octavia continued to bicker, cleaning the place and bringing some furniture down that was upstairs. Cloud Chaser and Flitter soon returned, placing a large pile of wood beside the fireplace. And finally, Bon Bon came in after she finished her traps outside.
With everything finished, they all walked up to Lyra, who was still looking at the map.
“Okay,” she started, “since we’ll be going to their posts instead of avoiding them, I’ve made some changes to where we’ll be going. We should be there much sooner as a result. I’d almost expect us to be there after tomorrow, possibly in the afternoon.”
“That’s great!” Cloud Chaser said, flying above everyone in a swirl. “And then we kick everypony’s butts over there and take Anon back!”
“Hold up on that thought,” Lyra said. “We still need to get there safely. We have to make sure each post we go to is safe and keep away from any rebels. We also need to case out the place a little to see what we’re up against.”
Cloud Chaser groaned at that, only wanting to run in cannon’s a blazing. Lyra decided to pack up her papers along with her map.
“It’ll be nice to be out of the forest for the night,” Bon Bon said. “Flitter, Vinyl, have either of you decided on who will take first watch?”
“Um… no, not r—”
“I’ll take the second watch,” Vinyl said, interrupting Flitter. “I don’t want you waking up for your watch half asleep so you’ll be taking first, okay?”
“Right!” Flitter said enthusiastically, happy in not having to make the decision.
She quickly flew over to her bag, pulling something out from it and started to put it on. Cloud Chaser slapped her forehead as everyone stared at Flitter’s new attire: a completely black, tight-fitting suit.
“Flitter, what are you wearing?” Lyra asked.
“It’s my clothing for when I want to be sneaky,” she said, getting low to the ground. “Now, nopony can see me when I’m on guard.” She started pattering around on the floor extremely quickly, chanting ‘nin, nin, nin,’ over and over.
As she continued to ‘nin’ around the room, everyone slowly turned to Cloud Chaser for an explanation. She raised her hooves in the air at her sister's shenanigans.
“Okay, look, she likes to dress up in things and apparently she brought one of her outfits along with us without me knowing,” she told the group. “Is it really any different from Bon Bon wearing her science coat?”
“…Yes, it is,” Bon Bon answered.
“And what exactly is she dressed up as?” Octavia asked. “And… why is she doing that?”
Flitter ignored the group, still in her own world as she ‘nin’d’ up the walls and the floor.
“She’s a ninja,” Cloud Chaser answered, “and she’s currently in stealth mode right now…”
“Wait, where did she go?” Vinyl asked.
Everypony was now just noticing Flitter wasn’t ‘nin’ing’ anymore and nowhere to be seen.
“Most likely hiding right now,” Cloud Chaser said. “While weird, she’s very serious when it comes to her getup’s and will fit the role she wears. She’ll come out if she’s needed.”
Cloud Chaser’s stomach rumbled right then, a red blush on her face appearing. All their stomachs growled in unison, reminding them all they were hungry.
“Let’s get some food cooking,” Bon Bon said, already by the campfire and throwing wood into it. “I’m starving!”
Vinyl flashed a spell up, lighting the wood on fire. The others quickly joined in helping to prepare the food, with Lyra staring at them, unable to really help with much. Thinking if there was some way to contribute, she looked at them all individually, right before her eyes were directed toward Bon Bon.
‘Now might be a good time to talk to her.’
With nothing that was in danger of getting them at the moment, she thought it would be a good time to talk to her while they were at the post.
“Hey, Bon Bon,” Lyra called out, getting her attention. “I want to talk to you for a moment. In private,” she said, nudging her head toward the door.
She tilted her head in confusion before looking at the others. “We’ll be right back,” she said, placing a rock-plate down, following Lyra.
“Just hurry your butts up or your food’s going to get cold!” Vinyl told them.
The two of them walked outside the post, only going out as far as Lyra though none of them would overhear the two. Thankfully for her, it wasn’t too dark out just yet so they could see where they were walking.
“So what did you want to talk to me about, Lyra?” Bon Bon asked.
‘This is it. Just try and talk to her about this to figure out what’s really up with her and Anon.’
“Lyra?”
“Bon Bon, I… wanted to talk to you about Anon.”
Bon Bon’s previous confusion turned to a small smile, “Is this about all those questions you’ve been asking me along the way?”
“Yeah, they are.”
“If you’re worried about Anon and me, then there’s nothing to worry about. I know I didn’t see him in a good light when he first came here, but we’re very good friends now, Lyra.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Lyra said with a frown.
“…Excuse me?”
“Bon Bon, just how close are you to Anon? You seem to like him more than just a friend.”
She took a step back, “I-I assure you nothing is going on.”
“Really? Nothing at all? So this whole month I’ve been doing things and been away, you haven’t gotten that close to Anon?”
“Just a-as a friend, Lyra!”
“I’ve just had a lot of time thinking back on things, remembering how you’d go out with him at any chance given. I’m not so sure about things between you two now.”
“Lyra, you can’t expect to believe that’s what’s been happening! It’s just two friends doing things with one another! W-Why would you interpret it like that?!”
“I suppose you’re right on that, it would be weird to do so even for me.”
Bon Bon was looking very confused and flustered at the moment. “So what’s with you bringing this up then?”
“Bon Bon… I heard you and Vinyl talking last night.”
She sucked in her breath, freezing on the spot and staring at Lyra with wide eyes. Lyra stared back, waiting for a response. She took her time, trying to process what Lyra had said. Her mouth opened and closed, trying to get something out.
“L-L-Lyra, I—” She took a deep breath, “I-I can explain.”
“Really? How are you going to explain you just lied to me a second ago? Why, Bon Bon? I didn’t expect you of all ponies to be that close to Anon and to lie to me about it. W-Why would you do that?”
Lyra could feel herself tearing up, trying to talk to her. It was a difficult task for the mare not to blow up with her racked emotions. Bon Bon herself was already in tears streaming down her face, dropping down onto the ground.
“I d-d-didn’t want you t-to find out like th—” She hiccuped, wiping her eyes before turning her direction to the ground. “-l-like this.”
A flash of anger hit Lyra. “What in the buck do you mean ‘not like this’? So you were planning on going behind my back with Anon?”
Bon Bon stuttered out, trying to say something.
“I thought we were real close,” Lyra gasped. “I d-didn’t expect you to do something so hurtful. J-Just answer me, why did you try getting with him, even knowing I liked him?”
Bon Bon wasn’t capable of words now, shaking like a leaf in the wind, staring at the ground.
“W-Why’d you have to like Anon?” Lyra asked, choking on air.
Bon Bon didn’t answer.
“W-Why?”
Still no answer.
“WHY?!”
“BECAUSE I WANTED US THREE TO BE TOGETHER!” Bon Bon screamed out, now staring at her while openly crying.
Rattled from being yelled back, Lyra lost her cool. “What the buck are you talking about?! You already live with us! Should I have been clearer about me liking Anon?! IS THAT IT?!”
“How can you be s-s-so s-stupid about this,” Bon Bon stammered out. “I wanted a relationship with us three, b-being together with one another!”
Bon Bon looked up at Lyra, tears still streaming down her face. In Lyra’s anger, she wasn’t taking in what her friend was telling her, only thinking of how Bon Bon tried to take Anon. In her own stupidity, she didn’t think out what she would say next.
“…I only wanted Anon, not you.”
It was like something shattered inside of Bon Bon when she had said that. Her face showed she was in an enormous amount of pain, hearing that. Turning around, she ran away from Lyra and into the tower, crying the entire way there.
Lyra, in her anger, still didn’t comprehend what was spoken to her. In the back of her head, that little voice spoke to her, saying something that would slowly make her realize she had messed up.
‘You’re such a terrible, stupid pony, Lyra.’
~End Chapter Seventeen~
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Yea, she fucked up big time.
Lyra...
You have a lot of work to do to fix that.
What hour is that? Yep: Fucked up o'clock, right on time.
F in chat
a mistake right there
Is pink a chaos color or something? Pink clouds of Discord, pink of Pinkie Pie, and now pink of the Pink Manticore. All three chaotic beings have done something pink or are pink.
I completely agree with this voice of her mind. It is correct this time.
Entirely correct.
i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/032/691/Oof_Stones_Banner.jpg
Damn. That's messed up.
Lyra you fucked up in the highest degree
So Anon is a one man arm with smooth words against terrorists and Lyra has really made thing the worst possible way for her and Bon Bon right now. Just wow
Uhhm. String player here. Cello, Bass, Violin, Viola, Guitar, or other, none of these use strings made from hair. Hair isn't strong enough to handle the tension required to bring them into tune. Most strings are made from wire, either solid or with a solid core wrapped in very fine wire. Some are made from synthetic materials, possibly also with wire-wrapping. These are intended to sound more like historic "gut" strings (which are made with animal sinews, not intestines!)
Horsehair is used for the bow, not the strings. Bows don't need high tension; just enough to keep the hair straight. The scales in the hair structure get sticky with rosin made from pine sap, etc, and catch on the instrument strings to set them vibrating.
https://farm7.static.flickr.com/6093/6299363935_40a11c5e8c.jpg
It was at that time, Lyra Hearthstrings knew she f*cked up.
You guys think the plan for a herd is going to still happen with what Lyra said? Cuz honestly that was OOF, I know Lyra has done some questionable stuff in the past of this story. But dang this might be a close second to the whole capturing an alien to against its will kinda thing.
I know they might make up in the future, and they’re might be a happy ending. But what if this doesn’t turn out the way everyone wants in this story? I’m super curious on with now anon having his lid completely off, will there be some negative consequences to the future of the story? Is it better with the trope or go a complete 180? Penny for your thoughts?
“…I only wanted Anon, not you.”
when that anger leaves her she's going to realize she had fucked up real bad, hope some pony smack some sense into her if she's still clueless as fuck or riding that anger boner.
My guess is on Vinyl, she already stepped up once, might as well do it again.
Welp.....she Dun fucked up.
I have loved re-reading this, and that final scene in here brings out my range and sadness as much now as it did before. I look forward to the following!
I wish to hug Bon Bon. She needs love right now.
Lyra. Why so short sighted? Is it because you are a silly pony?
Taking bets on "Pinkie in a surprisingly realistic suit" for the manticore.
Fuck! Poor BonBon.
10170394
Eh after some light skimming online I found out that the internet is dumb. I couldn't find any conversion for dynamite to kilotons. The only conversion I found is for the little boy and fat man bombs. Ugh, the explosive forces and weight is making my brain fry. I mean you'd think someone would have made a conversion. We have one for basically everything else. Weights, kilotons to megatons, math, basicly everything else of that I can think of.
All caught up. Excellent as always. You've got me on the edge of my seat again.
10160556
Maybe Equestrian pony hair is super strong? That's what they eat rocks for, to get the required iron? Or maybe it's carbon nanotubes? I mean, it already has special magic resistance properties and can be used as a drill or to throw heavy objects…
10170407 Your google-fu is weak. Kiloton.
I'm guessing Pinkie was both the fortuneteller from last chapter and the manticore from this chapter. Why? Who knows. It's Pinkie.
Well shit
YOU DONE MESSED LYRA, YOU DONE MESSED UP
Lmao they did a Jarate!
Lyra is a silly pony.
HOLY FUCKING CHEESECRACKERS I FELT THAT!!
When I read that ending I was like
“Ain’t no way 💀”.
Maybe I don't know Equestrian Astrology or... planet stuff. But I always assumed that since the Princesses control the sun and moon in place of the planet orbiting the sun, and rotating to cause night and such.
I just assumed 'setting the sun' meant Celestia was giving the other side of the planet day, and 'lowering the moon' its vice versa.
So are they under the impression that removing Celestia destroys the sun? If so, the moon would still need to go around the planet like normal.
Really you just get "endless black" 5am — 7pm and then 'enternal night" 7pm - 5am